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Architectural Technical Debt in Embedded Systems
Author(s) -
Martini Antonio,
Bosch Jan
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2016.00209.x
Subject(s) - technical debt , agile software development , debt , phenomenon , order (exchange) , process (computing) , architectural pattern , risk analysis (engineering) , computer science , business , engineering , software , software development , finance , software engineering , software design , physics , quantum mechanics , programming language , operating system
The introduction of Agile Software Development in large companies developing embedded systems aims at shortening the time‐to‐market for new business value for the customers. However, evidences show how system engineering needs to be integrated in the process in order to avoid the degradation of architectural system qualities. Such phenomenon has recently been identified with a financial metaphor, Architectural Technical Debt, which maps sub‐optimal architectural solutions to taking a debt, and its costly impact into an interest to be paid in the long term. Through a multiple case study in 5 companies, we show what are the current practical challenges related to the long‐term accumulation of Architectural Technical Debt, and how system engineers need to track and manage such phenomenon in order to avoid costly impact such as development crises and costly re‐design.